Call for foresters to vote on levy order

The Chair of the Forest Growers Levy Trust, Geoff Thompson,
says a positive vote in the current levy referendum is vital
to maintain the support of government funding for the
industry.

Forest owners are currently voting whether
to renew the Commodity Levies Act Order which expires later
this year after operating for the past six years.

Voting closes this Saturday, April 20th.

Geoff
Thompson says feedback from forest owners has been
enthusiastic in support of renewing the order.

“We’ve run meetings and conducted a formal survey of
farm foresters’ opinions on how they regard the investment
we’ve put mostly into forest research, but also harvest
mechanisation, safety, industry recruitment, forest health
and biosecurity. That feedback has been pretty keen.All
we need now is the vote to support that enthusiasm.”

Geoff Thompson says he is well aware of recent lack of
support in other industries for a levy.

“For our
part we’ve worked hard to make sure potential levy payers
know how the levy money has worked to benefit them. We’ve
been transparent and gone to great lengths to get the
message out there. We even broadcast a ten-week television
series to inform farm foresters of the levy work
progress.”

“However, unlike most other levy
funded organisations in the primary sector, the forest
industry doesn’t know who most of the levy payers are
until they sell their harvest once every few decades. Most
industries have levy payers who contribute at least once a
year and so there is a direct line of communications from
then on.”

Geoff Thompson says foresters need to
know that not only is the levy invested in ways to help
secure higher returns and lower costs at harvest, but that
the levy is often paired up with government or other
investment.

He says the just announced partnership
of levy funds with government support is a $29 million
example.

Te Mahi Ngahere i te Ao Hurihuri –
Forestry Work in the Modern Age Partnership is a project to
bring automation and robot technology into tree felling and
log handling, which anticipates saving harvest and transport
supply chain costs by nearly $10 a tonne by 2030.

“This is a hugely important project which will benefit
small scale woodlot owners by offsetting the size of their
forests by clever use of technology. I would hate to see
such development in our industry jeopardised by a small
turnout of voters.”

Eligibility to vote is
restricted to anyone who owns at least four hectares of
trees planted at least ten years ago.

Geoff Thompson
says this restriction is because those who would be paying
the levy are the ones who have the right to vote for it.

“The voter needs to have trees old enough to mature
for harvest sometime in the next six years of the new levy
order,” Geoff Thompson
says.

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